The Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) has coordinated with Philippine National Police (PNP) engineers for the field validation of ‘ghost projects’ amid its ongoing investigation on infrastructure anomalies.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, ICI Executive Director Brian Keith Hosaka said the commission conducted a technical and coordination meeting with PNP engineers for the field validation that they will conduct on the 421 flood control ghost projects that were recently inspected across the country.
‘We wanted to coordinate with them, discuss with them the procedure and how we will go about this. What process, what technology can we use,’ Hosaka said.
He added that the ICI also invited an engineer from the private sector, Engineer Michael Reyes, who is part of the Council of Engineering Consultants of the Philippines, to ask for ‘his expertise on how we can go about the validation of these 421 ghost projects.’
Aside from this, members of and the Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco) were also present at the ICI building this Tuesday.
Hosaka said they invited Soco to seek help in terms of the handling of evidence and how to document the validation of ghost projects in the field.
‘We are [looking at] evidence here. What we are looking at here is that a crime has happened. So we have to make sure that the evidence to be gathered will be acceptable in court. So that is their value why they are here,’ he said.
On October 9, Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon said at least 421 flood control works were found to be ‘ghost projects’ out of the 8,000 inspected nationwide.
These flood control projects were inspected by the Department of Public Works and Highways, PNP, Armed Forces of the Philippines, and Department of Economy, Planning, and Development. /gsg